Depth as surface made perfect

“The human heart to be allegorized as a cavern- at the entrance there is sunshine and flowers growing about it. You step within, but a short distance, and begin to find yourself surrounded with a terrible gloom, and monsters of diverse kinds; it seems like Hell itself. You are bewildered, and wander long without hope. At last a light strikes upon you. You peep towards it, and find yourself in a region that seems, in some sort to reproduce the flowers and sunny beauty of the entrance, but all perfect. These are the depths of the heart, or of human nature; bright and peaceful; the gloom and terror may lie deep; but deeper still is the eternal beauty.”—HAWTHORNE